Child Passengers on the Titanic

[Marilyn Lena Penner]

Sorry about that, Bob and George. I really must make that appointment with the optometrist.

One of the lovely advantages (or not) of an on-line library catalogue and Microsoft Access is the cut and paste function. Much easier to paste than type a long title on the forms. Unfortunately I still have to read the spines on the actual books.

 

[monica e. hall]

Well, I have to say, I rather love those pre-20th Century chapter titles. Not that Nigel Tomm's offering is remotely similar, being a stupendously daft puff - if it's true. Ben, I think there might be a market for long but trenchant chapter titles now. What goes around, comes around.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

The great thing about those weighty chapter titles is that you can read just those to get a pretty good idea of the narrative developments without actually ploughing through the book. You can then impress your literary friends by discoursing on the subject of Oliver Twist or Great Expectations when in fact you've never read anything more demanding than Ian Fleming or Jacqueline Susan. Stephen Hawking should have offered something similar for A Brief History of Time.

 

[monica e. hall]

Yes, I'd noticed ,Bob.... and done the same myself.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Remember those comic books called Classics Illustrated? Great stuff, and a natural intellectual progression from the Beano, which I finally made at the age of 43. Back in those days I was able to impress ladies by giving the impression that I was actually reading The Iliad or Crime and Punishment, when in fact I was only looking at the pictures.

 

[Mark Baber]

Remember those comic books called Classics Illustrated?

Comic books?? Batman and Superman were comic books, Bob; Classics Illustrated were works of art!

 

[George L. Lorton]

Remember those comic books called Classics Illustrated?

I remember something like that from when I was a kid. Anything to get us Nintendo playing kids to read good literature. Ivanhoe was a real clunker. I liked reading about Knights and feats of arms too as a kid but that book put me asleep til I found a Comic Book version of it. It wasn't til later on that I was able to appreciate the Classics. After I got into Thackeray's Vanity Fair I knew I could get into and read anything. Nineteenth literature certainly was structured to where the Author communicated with the reader more. Dear reader this and dear reader that. More Communication but very tedious to the modern reader.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

You're right, Mark. Works of art indeed. It's just as well they stopped publication, though, or we might today be seeing Classics Illustrated versions of Valley of the Dolls or The Da Vinci Code. Hang on, best delete this post before any publisher sees it and gets ideas. On the other hand, a comic strip - sorry - work of art version of ANTR might sit well on our shelves.

 

[Ben Lemmon]

I might be showing my youth here, but I am not familiar with Classics Illustrated. I do remember, however, Great Illustrated Classics. I never read one of those, but they were quite popular when I went to Elementary School.

So do you think I should use really lengthy titles for my story, Instead of Chapter 9, I could name it "The evening of the same day. Dinner on the Titanic and a visit from a person Jimmy hates, who he subsequently injures in a way only a man can really be injured, and Jimmy's feelings on what he did" How does that sound?

Pictures are what makes books good. Perhaps I should include some pictures if my book gets published. That would help with the visualization.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

For those unlucky enough to be young, here's a taste of Classics Illustrated:

http://thenostalgialeague.com/galleries/dan2/classics-ill.html

Note that the speech balloons and captions were often rather lengthy, so it was still necessary to do quite a lot of reading (all to the good).

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Ben, as I've advised before, first write the book. Then find a publisher. That's the point where the sort of questions that you're asking here will need to be considered, and like as not the publisher will have their own policies on such matters.

 

[Stanley C Jenkins]

The historical accuracy of Classics Illustrated varied enormously. For example, in Zola's The Downfall - which is about the Franco Prussian War - the French soldiers were portrayed fairly accurately, but the Germans were depicted in World War I uniforms. Even worse was a story by Fenimore Cooper (I think it was The Red Rover) in which 18th century British naval officers were shown wearing red coats!